Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-03-12
PREVAILING SICKNESS.
As Reported by DR.. Tyrrell, Secretary OF
the State Board of Health.


the State Board of Health.
The report upon the health OF the State,
issued by DIR. G. G. Tyrrell, Permanent
Secretary of the State Board of Health,
shows that the mortality for the month of
February, reported from an estimated pop
ulation of 565,610, gives the total number
of deaths at S66, which, compared with Il q
of the preceding month, shows but a very
trihing decrease. The extreme humidity
of the atmosphere, with the copious rain
! fall during the month, was unfayorable for
those suffering from disease of the pull
monary organs. Remarking upon prevail
ing sickness, the doctor says:
Reports from all parts Of the State indi-
cate an entire absence of serious disease, if
we except the portion where smallpox
prevails. The extremely humid weather
during February does not seem to ] ave.
given any marked increase to pulmonary
affections, or to those affecting the aliment-
ary system.
Measles continues to prevail in Pomona,
Santa Cruz, Riverside, Ontario, Anaheim,
Bakersfield, Livermore and Hanford.
Scarlet fever, in mild form, is present
in lone, Redding, Fresno, Modesto, Santa
Rosa, Millyilie, Jolon, Riversiie, Mariposa,
Hanford and Fort Bidwell. In Santa Rosa,
DR.. r. p. Smith, Jr., writes that the disease
is fast disappearing. In Fort Bidwell, DIR.
Kober informs US that the disease was con-
veyed from Warren valley, in Oregon sixty
miles away, by the uncle of a ehildPwho
/ having been exposed to the disease, came
TO Fort Bidwell for medicine and slept on
bedspread upon the floor of the child's
residence. Next day the child played ON
this spread, and ten days after developed
the fever and died. Through strict san
itation, the disease was confined to this one
case and has not spread.
Diphtheria continues to prevail in San
Francisco to limited extent 1t is also no
ticed in Merced, Fresno, Placer, Igo, Mill
vile, Amador City, Knights Ferry, True
kee, Riverside, Modesto, Mariposa, Peta-
luna, Hills Ferry, Salinas and Etna Mills.
The cases. are all sporadic Dr. Payne,
Health Officer at Berkeley, pronounces that
town TO be now free from diphtheria or
other contagious diseases. DIR. Seymour
Baker writes that the disease has ceased to
prevail in Angels Camp. In Douglas Flat,
some miles away, there are three cases in
one family, who decline either isolation OF
disinfection.
Group is noticed everywhere that diph-
liberia is at all prevalent.
Whooping- cough is very prevalent in
Sacramento, lone, Comptonville, Pomona,
Upper Lake, Riverside, Ontario, Dixon and
Williams
Erysipelas has shown itself in Fresno,
Salinas, Fort Bidwell Lemoore, Anaheim,
Rocklin, Calico and Redding. The affec-
ton is sporadic, and without epidemic ten
deney or great fatality.
Typhoid fever does not appear to prevail
TO any extent. 1t is mentioned as occurring
in Santa Cruz. Wheatland, Yreka, Sonoma,
Salinas. America, Anaheim, Riverside San
Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles. The
cases are few, and no mention is made of
malignaney or tendency to epidemicity.
Pneumonia is noticed as occurring with
much frequency in nearly every town
heard from, but seems, from the reports, to
be decreasing as the inclement weather
ceases. The past month was not so pro-
ductiye of pneumonia as it was of its rela-
tive, bronchitis, which prevailed quite ex-
tensively throughout the State, was not of
a severe type, or productive of any unusual
mortality.
Smallpox has, we regret to say, again
reappeared in California, after long period,
of absence. AS was anticipated for some
months, it found entrance through our un-
guarded southern frontier, appearing for
the first time in Los Angeles, during the
] latter part of the month, in the person of
young man from Mexico, who quickly
communicated it to Others until by the
end of the month twelve cases were re-
ported. with three deaths. ~On February
! 26th three cases were reported in Lugos, a
Spanish settlement, nine miles from Los
Angeles. Three cases and one death were
reported from South Pasadena. These
cases were at once quarantined by DR.. W.
B. Sawyer, the Health Officer. The dis
ease, however, continues to spread among
the Spanish and Mexican population, who
refuse vaccination, and will not tolerate
isolation. Upon the first appearance of
the disease in Los Angeles, DR.. j. S. Baker,
the efficient Health Officer, and Dr. H. s.
Orme, President of the Board, lost
no time in taking every precaution to
prevent the spread of the disease
by vaccination and strict quarantine of
. the exposed persons. In spite of
their efforts the disease continues to
increase, and will, no doubt, reach other
parts of the State. In San Diego one case.
of the disease was imported from Ell Paso,
/ Texas. We learn through private sources
that other cases occurred at Perris, San
Diego county. Dr. Magee, Health Officer
in San Diego, writes that no information
has cached him of smallpox in Perris,
and says he has made arrangements to
have immediate reports if any cases occur
between Cotton and San Diego. One case
reached San Francisco, which was speedily
quarantined. No other cases are there re
ported. The Board has taken the precau-
ton, by circular, to warn the public that
its safety resides in efficient vaccination,
and that no quarantine, no matter how
! faithfully attempted, can be certain to ex-
clude the disease from traversing the whole
State, once the invasion has taken place.
| In vaccinationswe have preventive that is
at once certain and safe Smallpox can
not exist without unvaccinated, and there
fore unprotected, persons, upon whom it
can thrive. Protect these by vaccination,
| and smallpox must become extinct. This
Board requests its correspondents and the
public to attend to this duty promptly, be-
fore the disease is at their doors, for in no
disease is the aphorism, An ounce of pre-
Vention is worth pound of cure" more
applicable, or more strictly in accordance
with past experience, than in smallpox.